Nest Cam Battery (Indoor and Outdoor) - Live Video Unavailable

[storeyrich]

Hi

I've seen a bunch of threads about this having just encountered the problem

I just received a delivery of a two pack of Net Cam Battery (Indoor and Outdoor).

I've not even got so far as trying to install them onto my house as they simply don't work during the setup phase.

I set everything up, they appear in Google Home, but when I try to access them, they say "Camera unavailable", and "Live video unavailable" just beneath.

I have tried:

• Resetting the devices
• Resetting the devices to factory settings
• Ensuring the devices were set up on a 2.4Ghz network using a Pixel 5 which was also on the 2.4Ghz network

The devices are:

• 2m from the router and have line of sight
• Whilst trying this all out, are plugged in to the wall charger
• They also don't work when they are no longer plugged into the wall charger
• They are 'docked' to the mount showing a green light
• They are saving event history to my account; so clearly are 'connected', but the live feed doesn't show
• They have been updated automatically to whatever the latest firmware is, this happened during setup

I've reset my internet router, the cameras, and I've tried both devices (as it's a twin pack), and neither of them will give me a live feed when I choose the option.

I have a Nest Cam Outdoor 1st Generation and this works flawlessly, and is part of the same Google Home group, along with two Google Minis and a Google Hub.

I have plenty of bandwidth available.

This is really frustrating. I'm looking for a fix over the next few days, otherwise, they're going back to the retailer as 'Faulty' for a full refund after the bank holiday. I don't expect to have paid almost £300 for two doorstops.

[storeyrich]

Update, which I realise is quite quickly after my OP.

It would seem that as I already had a 1st Gen Nest Cam Outdoor in my 'Google Home', something about that was stopping me setting up other cameras with live feeds.

I set up a whole new 'Home' under a different name (same email address). This then allowed me to add the two new cameras, and they work fine now. I then had to 'remove' my old 1st Gen Nest Cam Outdoor from my original 'Home', and set it up again from scratch in my new 'Home'. Since doing that, all three cameras are now streaming 'live' when requested.

When I created my new 'Home', it talked about this creating a brand new 'Nest Network', and I wonder if it's that that solved the problem, as if something about the old 'Nest Network' was legacy or something.

So, I think Google need to do some work with how legacy Nest cameras and new Nest cameras interact. My issue isn't really 'resolved' or 'solved', as I shouldn't have needed to create a whole new home just to add two new Google cameras.

Hope this helps someone who has a mixture of old and new Nest products.

[MplsCustomer]

@storeyrich 

Your issue seems to be related to the infamous "cannot connect to assisting device" error that has plagued many many Google Nest customers for the last year. (Search this forum for "assisting device".)

In the past, whenever you added a new Google Nest camera or doorbell, the install process always had us select our Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and enter our Wi-Fi password manually. At some point, it seems someone at Google Nest decided to "help" us customers by obtaining the network name and password automatically from an existing Google Nest device--the so-called "assisting device". The problem has been, for many customers, that the "assisting device" process didn't work, and since customers didn't know which of their existing older Google Nest devices was considered the "assisting device", they've resorted to various workarounds, like turning off or removing all of their existing Google Nest devices, or creating a temporary new "home", or a new "home" (like you did), to force manual entry of the network name and password.

Google Nest has never offered an explanation, a fix, or a solution to the "assisting device" problem. Some customers have theorized it occurs when there is some incompatibility between the software/firmware versions of the existing devices and the new device. (It hasn't happened to us, even though we've added several Google Nest devices in the last year, though our new Nest Hub Max wouldn't install until we temporarily placed it close to one of our existing Nest Hubs.)

At any rate, no one knows because Google Nest has never explained what's going on. But your solution (creating a new "home") seems similar to how some customers have solved the "assisting device" issue.

[Stevenpark]

Unfortunately I've been having the same issue but still no avail, I have created a new home and yet does not work.

The only time it works is when I hotspot the same wifi connection via my phone it only displays the live feed.

[storeyrich]

Only as I read it elsewhere whilst troubleshooting, apparently the cameras are fixed to 2.4Ghz WiFi (in the UK at least not sure about worldwide). If setting up via a phone which is on the 5Ghz band during setup, it might cause some kind of confusion.

I had this issue with a couple of unrelated smart devices in the past (non-Google smart heating thermostats) that were on 2.4Ghz and despite the WiFi router supposedly meshing all the frequencies together, it only set up when the phone doing the setup was on the same frequency.

Also had torture resetting a 1st Gen Chromecast when Google created that new anti-Sonos lawsuit app for setting up devices. That too a ton of goes and again (probably as 1st Gen Chromecast was pre 5Ghz I've had it many many years) it only set up when on the same frequency network.

May be a quirk of my router but thought I'd share just in case it helped.

Using the same WiFi frequency was just for setup. Once setup, it isn't a requirement.

[storeyrich]

Okay, so this was all working last night. I've not gone to install it on my house, and now I'm getting the same error again. The router is literally a metre away on the other side of the wall. It's not a signal issue. It's just literally the passage of time that is the only difference.

Really unimpressed with these cameras. They are so flaky I don't know if I should even keep them just to find they do this again in another day or a week.

I'm stumped now.

[Brad]

Hey there,

I am terribly sorry to hear that you're having this issue with your Nest camera! I'm sure it's frustrating but I'm happy to look into this and see how we can help out. The first troubleshooting step that I'd recommend would be to Restart your device. By doing this, it should keep all your settings, and reconnect it to the same Wi-Fi network. This is helpful if it ever freezes, has connection problems, or isn't working normally.

Best regards,
Brad

[cpultz]

I was in the exact same situation this weekend. Same device environment and everything.

Eventually a combo of factory reset, removing it from my Home, and re-adding it to my home solved it for me. 

Frustrating. but finally got it working after a lot of troubleshooting.

[janthadeus]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your help here, @MplsCustomer, @cpultz and @Brad.

How's it going with your Nest Camera (battery)? Do you still need our help?

Let us know and we'll be happy to help.

Thanks,

JT

[janthadeus]

Hi storeyrich,

We haven't heard any updates from you. I'll go ahead and lock this thread in 24 hours. If you happen to have the same concern feel free to reach us out here or start a new thread.

Best, 
JT